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Monday, July 30, 2012

The mesmerizing shopping plaza spread around Duomo Church is oozing with designer and high-end brands, local boutiques, fancy cafes and gelato stores. It's really huge and even after 5 visits to this place I don't think I was able to cover even 40% of the plaza! The architectural beauty adds to the shopping pleasure and takes the whole experience to a new level. This place is must visit in Milan!

The absolute stunning Duomo Church is a landmark beauty of the city. It actually took 500 years to built it!

Inside the Church

Polizia(Police) of Milano

Graffiti was everywhere! I mean it! Everywhere...! Look at this metro train...

Como Lake, a very hot tourist spot nearby Milano

Note: All the pictures are from my friend's camera as my camera very conveniently decided to have it's own holiday and refused to work. And now, that my holidays are over, so is my cam's. it's working now :/

Sunday, July 29, 2012

I have always been a light traveller. I try to pack as less as possible when it comes to clothes, makeup, jewellery, anything. And not only less, I pack compactly. I don't know how to describe that but it's like....ummmm....everything has its own compartment in the suitcase. I keep different kits for my makeup, toiletries, clothes(yes, clothes too!), etc. While travelling back, I was really worried about my luggage being over-weight but it turned out to be exactly 30 kg which is what I was allowed. And considering the amount of shopping I did, it was no joke! So, I thought maybe I can share few tips on how to be travel chic and hence, this series.

I will start off with toiletry kit...

I bought this cute kit from Colorbar Store in Select Citywalk, New Delhi.

Now, you are allowed to carry full size bottles of shampoos, conditioners, body lotions, anything you want in your check-in baggage. But knowing that I won't need that much amount of these products for just 2 weeks, I decided to take smaller quantities. I picked travel size products for everything I needed to carry with me.

FACE

Well, it's not a secret how huge I am a fan of Kiehl's so it was inevitable for me to not carry them. They are my secret trustworthy weapons to cover up several late nights in a row. I picked travel size bottles and jars of Acai damage-protecting toning mist, Ultra facial moisturizer, Ultra Facial cream, Ultra Light Daily UV Defense sunscreen, Midnight recovery concentrate and Line-Reducing Concentrate from Kiehl'sand small size face wash tube fromPond's.

HAIR CLEANSER

I like to shampoo three times a week and keep switching the shampoos in between, so I picked 3 different kinds, the Watercress Hair Cleanser from TNC, Olive Fruit oil nourishing Shampoo and Thickening Shampoo from Kiehl's. The jars of thickening shampoo were samples I had received from the SA of the store.

HAIR CONDITIONER

Here, I agree that I could have done with 2 conditioners but I just couldn't choose! They all work really good for my hair and since I apply a liberal amount, I needed to be on a safer side by carrying three conditioners namely Watercress hair conditioner from TNC, Amino Acid Conditioner, Olive fruit oil nourishing conditioner and Olive hair pack from Kiehl's. The hair pack was a deep conditioner that I had kept to treat my hair on the weekend.

BODY WASH/ BODY LOTION

Ummm...I am aware of the fact that the hotels provide us with a shampoo and a soap but I don't like to use those. I am weird like that. So, I carry my own soap. And fortunately, I found a travel size soap in the TNC Travel Kit I had got. I also got the Lemongrass Body Wash & Lavender Body Lotion in the same kit along with hair cleanser & conditioner.

EXTRAS

A few extra things in my kit would be makeup remover wipes(I hate to carry liquid removers and cotton seperately), mini-toothpaste, a good razor, sample perfumes or a perfume atomizer( I forgot to take a pic of my atomizer but it's a really good idea if you want to carry your fav. perfume), lens solution and Moroccan Oil(poured in a Lakme Nail color remover bottle). Instead of carrying a liquid nailpaint remover, I took nailpaint remover wipes.

Few additional tips:

- Try to carry as less liquid as possible. Even though you are allowed to carry any amount in your check-in baggage, you wouldn't want a 1ltr shampoo bottle leaked in you suitcase, will you? And yes, it happens!

- Put all your liquid (anything that flows qualifies as liquid) products including makeup(foundation, liquid illuminator, etc) in a ziplock bag and then place the ziplock bag neatly in the travel kits. Ensures double safety.

- If you want to carry your moisturizer, lip balm, sanitizer, etc with you on the flight then keep the travel size bottles of these products in a ziplock bag seperately for your carry-on luggage. I like to keep it in my purse so that I can easily take it out for screening during security check.

I hope these tips helped at least some of you. I am maybe late with this post as holidays are already over but you never know when you might need to travel and these tips will really come in handy then!

Friday, July 27, 2012

God knows how much I had been craving to pay a visit to Sephora! As soon as I landed, I wanted to hit two stores, H&M and Sephora. First day, we all went to Duomo which is a huge shopping paradise and you get all sorts of brands there but before I could spot these stores, we had to leave as we were supposed to meet few more friends for a visit to Como Lake, a very hot tourist spot nearby Milano. I went back to Duomo a few days later and could only find H&M (it's a really huge place and you need at least a month to explore the whole Duomo!There are three H&M stores in Duomo itself for God's sake!) After two more visits and no Sephora, I was bound to take some action so I called my Hotel's reception and asked if they knew where Sephora stores were located in the city. The guy was really sweet and gave me the descriptions of the two biggest Sephora stores and finally I spotted it in Duomo! yayaiee!! I was like a kid in a candy store! I mean seriously!! No Joke! After almost 2 hours in the store and a much lighter wallet, I walked out swearing to come back once again before I leave..:P

Its pretty obvious, I went bonkers with the makeup...lol!

BENEFIT COSMETICS

The packaging is oh-so-cute! And the quality of the products is surprisingly good!

A silicon based pore minimizing Primer

Cream foundation which leaves a matte finish, SO CUTE!

Brow Highlighter, Seriously this is too good!

A brightening pink primer

URBAN DECAY

I grabbed all the famous and much talked about products from UD, no second thoughts or pondering over :P

Well, I bought this Naked palette the same day I had my flight. It was expensive so I had decided that I would buy it only if I have enough cash left by the last day.

CHANEL

Again, a last day impulse purchase. I had been reading a lot of rave reviews about this product lately and wanted to give it a try. I have used it twice since and I absolutely love it! BEST FOUNDATION EVER!!

SEPHORA

The Sephora lipsticks were available in sooo many colors!! From brights to dulls, creamy to matte, every shade you could think of was right in front of me. I knew resistance was futile so picked 3 gorgeous colors....

FREEBIES!!

I got these sample products with my purchase..yay yay! The Dior bottle is soooo cute!!

NAILPAINTS

I also picked few nailpaints from H&M and Kiko. Kiko is a Milano brand but I wasn't really impressed with the makeup quality of the products except the stick blushes and nailpaints. I picked up a natural color blush for my sister and she loved it.

I am really excited to use all these new products and would also do detailed review of them. Let me know if any of you want some particular products to be reviewed.Ciao!!! :D

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